4. Helping businesses create jobsTaking £2,000 off the tax paid by businesses when they employ someone, lifting 450,000 businesses out of paying the jobs tax altogether.

5. Backing British businessesCutting corporation tax to 20%, the lowest rate of any of the world's top 20 economies.

The thread connecting these policies is this: work pays, and we want you to keep more of the money you earn. The Conservatives are not just sitting back and waiting for austerity to work, we are taking concrete steps to help ordinary people with the cost of living and to help businesses grow and create jobs.

Stick with us. The economy is healing - this is taking a long time because of the huge damage done by Labour.

The budget deficit has now been reduced by one third, which is real progress towards balancing the books. With the Conservatives, in coming years the deficit will continue to shrink and then it will disappear. When we are earning more than we spend we will see our enormous national debt melt away. We can then bring to an end the sinful waste of using public money to pay debt-interest to wealthy international money-men.

This budget underlines that this government is helping ordinary workers on each step of this difficult but necessary journey.